Santa and the Chevy Man - Part I

It's Monday and my allergies are killing me.  Everything is coated in a yellow powder and my eye are on fire. With all of the rain between Friday and Monday, it took just one warm day and "WA-POOF"; I am in pollen purgatory.  I need to just lay down and close my eyes for a few minutes while I resist the urge to dig out my eyeballs.....

As I lay there breathing slowly and trying not to succumb to misery, I rewind to happier times like Saturday.  It was 0730 sharp and my brother was at the doorstep front and center.  I was beginning to wonder if he had developed an appreciation for Fords but that was summarily dismissed as he barked out "Get in the car, I'm hungry".  Roger that. On the way to the car, I couldn't help but notice that we were boarding a brand-new Chevy Cruze and that Mike had on his black Chevrolet t-shirt. Nice and subtle Mike, like a neon-pink assassin in tap-shoes.

We made our way up with Pam, Austin, and Corey in the back seat.  Austin looked a little green as Mike fought his right foot most of the way up trying to maintain a reasonable speed.  After an awesome breakfast at the Valley diner, we continued on. Every now and again I would cast a wary eye at Austin who fortunately was seated behind Mike but was well within range of a violent post-pancake eruption.  It would server my brother right as he was perpetually carsick as a kid.

So we wind our way into Harrisburg and to the familiar red-roof of CJPS and as we pull in, I took notice of the entrance.  What the – I had never noticed the red Mustang emerging from the ground like some sort of half-zombie searching for parts to complete itself and roll on down the road for a unsuspecting Nova meal…..but I digress. I was thinking to myself what a surreal scene when I thought I heard a snort from Mike, but that may have been breakfast working its way through his system.  I gotta get out of this car.

We park and as we are making our way to the door this gentleman screeches his car to a halt, jumps out and dashes inside.  I chuckle as this is the way it is with Bill; always with a customer.  No worries, I just direct Mike to the bathroom and the rest of the crew to the showroom and I head back into the shop.

My car is once again in mid-flight and I can’t help but gaze at the new rims on the car.  I have to say that initially I wasn’t in love with the rims, but that’s because I am AR. It’s not that they were ugly, it’s simply that I wasn’t expecting them, hence the uncertainty.  Bill assured me that they could be swapped with no problem, but the more I looked at them, the more I liked them. My mind is usually ten steps ahead of my eyes, so I had to run and drag my brain back to the present.  I do believe these tires work perfectly with the current paint and definitely will work with the final color as well.  Good call Bill, as always.

Bill had finished with the previous customer in record time and was now covering everything that had been done to the car in the past 2 weeks.  Wheels, tires, exhaust removed, wiper washer installed, disc brakes installed, rears painted and prepped, the list is dizzying.  I silently ponder the hours it would have taken me to complete all of this work but then I snap out of the trance and blurt out, “Hey Bill, where’s that 302 you pulled from another customer?”.

Bill had informed me earlier in the project that there was a 302 Jasper from another customer who had wanted a more era-appropriate 289 and thus had traded the motor toward a new one.  This is where my brother perked up and started asking gear-head questions of Bill who deftly answered them one after another.  We all decided that this little beauty had just the right amount of power and known history to be a much better fit than the mystery 86 roller I have.

I will continue on with Part II tomorrow as I need to get some rest, but suffice it to say that the best is yet to come as Santa gets a few more things for the list and Mike tells me just what heck the he was doing back near the gas tank!